Grenade Genie- Book Review
*Full disclosure- I am good friends with the author of the book, however I purchased the book myself and the review of this poetry collection is based on my real thoughts and opinions*
I'm not one for poetry. There, I've said it! It feels like such a relief getting it our there. I can't deny it. I love the flights of fancy and evocative use of language but I don't always 'get' poetry. I find that it often doesn't speak to me, typically being florid flights of fancy or obscure verbose language that I don't always understand. I suppose the last time I really looked at poetry was in secondary school and the intense study and dissecting of poetry for essay writing killed any enthusiasm I once might have had for it.
My favorite poets are Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephenaiah and Spike Milligan because they write with such joie de vivre and a love of the absurd. I've never had to look at the deep and meaningful purpose behind 'Ning Nang Nong', 'Talking Turkey' or 'Chocolate Cake' and I suppose the rose-tinted nostalgia attached to these from my childhood plays a part too.
There's no profundity or deepness to these, but in my maturity I've started to develop a deeper appreciation of the arts; I like ballet (very occasionally, about once every 10 years is great, as it lasts a loooong time), opera (the music at least as the performances last longer than the extended 'Lord of the Rings' cuts), classical music (my favorite at the moment being Vaughn Williams 'Fantasia on a theme for John Tallis' and Arvo Part’s 'Spiegel I'm Spiegel') and pop philosophy (I like Kant- I am going to avoid the low hanging fruit there).
Having said all that, when Tom told me that he was publishing a new poetry collection I was enthused as he often writes about themes that I can relate to; the ennui of kebab joints, girls in headscarves and life in urban spaces. However, when I read the blurb of his latest collection, 'Grenade Genie' I was hooked; a series of political poems broken down into 4 segments- cursed, coerced, combative and corrupted? Yes please! This appealed to me in these challenging and uncertain times as the themes covered seemed prescient of the current unstable situation the world finds itself in. During this time of introspection and reflection, these poems really get to the heart of the matter and are vital.
The 25 poems vary in tone but all are different shades of dark. I read them all but a few very much resonated with me and left a lingering after-taste that I cannot shake, much like after watching a David Lynch film where you know you've experienced something strange yet beautiful that says much about the hidden facade of the world.
The poem named after the book, ‘Grenade Genie’, talks about the creation process, of making something and letting it fly into the wild:
Pull out the pin to release the genie
And therefore be
On the receiving end of the huge explosion
And I believe that this gets to the crux of this collection; putting a mirror up to the world through the lens of poetry and seeing the reaction you get.
‘Security Pass’ considers the way that we are all cogs in a machine with our security passes that gain us access to a small part of a whole capitalist industrial complex:
The system recognises-
That the thin row of binary
Will always trump any last shred of humanity
‘Jackpot’, meanwhile, is a great look at the pointlessness of capitalism and consumer culture. Considering the unedifying scenes of queues around the block of Nike Town, Primark and Marks & Spencer's after lockdown easing a few days ago, I found this verse interesting:
What else can we do at this stop
When we've all been programmed since birth
To have nothing else but shopping in the brain?
That's what the finest poetry can do, offer us an insight into the human condition. It lets us peer deep into the soul and look at the wonders and the darkness and the futility and the hope of it all and dream of what could be.
I'm not being a shill here but this collection of poetry is timely and essential at what is a pretty interesting time to be alive. It is challenging, uncomfortable in place but mostly it is true. What a time to be alive! During this time of reflection and introspection you cant do better than looking at this book as a manifesto of the 'state of the nation'.